Member's statement: Youth Assembly
Member's statement by Mr Colm Gildernew on .
- MLA
- Mr Colm Gildernew
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 4 February 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Youth Assembly
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4778909
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I wish to acknowledge the work of the Youth Assembly. It is one of the really interesting developments over the past number of years. The Youth Assembly was initiated under your predecessor, Alex Maskey, in 2021, and I know that you have continued that work. The Youth Assembly, to its credit, shadows the structures here, in that it has 90 Members, and those young people have identified a range of interests that they want to pursue through that format. They have three Committees, and, to the Members' credit, they have identified health, education and rights and equality as their key issues. I have had the experience of working with the Youth Assembly on several occasions, in my work as a member of the Committee for Communities and at the Public Accounts Committee. Indeed, last week, Youth Assembly Members were involved on two separate occasions. One was the pensions regulations, which we discussed last week, and several Youth Assembly Members gave evidence to the PAC on skills and their perceptions of that subject. I want to thank individually the Members of the Youth Assembly who attended and gave evidence at that session: we had Bláthnaid, Rory, Harrison and Paige. I am always hugely impressed by the diligence that they bring to that work. They are always well prepared, give the subject extensive consideration and bring their unique experience, knowledge and perspective. I therefore encourage Members, in any of their work in Committee, to consider the Youth Assembly. Its Members have important perspectives that they bring to the Youth Assembly on behalf of the people whom they represent, and every time that I engage with them, it reinforces my determination that we will see, as soon as possible, the voting age reduced to 16. Those young people have a voice, and their perspective is important, so I would like to see the voting age lowered to 16 across the island.
318 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.04 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- Subject area: Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.06 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.01 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.01 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.03 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.34 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.04 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.88 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.10 |
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.01 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.01 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:51 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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